Monday, June 23, 2003

Duck!

If you're in a boat in Louisiana, watch out for giant carp! According to this article at nola.com, researchers in that state recently discovered several bighead carp (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis) swimming through the Mississippi River. One likely cause for this is the escape of several species of carp from fish farms in Mississippi and Arkansas over a decade ago. Scientists are concerned by the invasion, since carp are voracious consumers of plankton, and could leave native fish species starving on the sidelines. Fishermen are concerned because carp are known to be jumpers (see subheading "Leaping fish not so funny"), and a scared jumping carp is big enough to knock someone out of a boat.